Is Nature Ever Evil?: Religion, Science, and ValueWillem B. Drees Psychology Press, 2003 - 341 pages Can nature be evil, or ugly, or wrong? Can we apply moral value to nature? From a compellingly original premise, under the auspices of major thinkers including Mary Midgley, Philip Hefner, Arnold Benz and Keith Ward, Is Nature Ever Evil? examines the value-structure of our cosmos and of the science that seeks to describe it. Science, says editor Willem B. Drees, claims to leave moral questions to aesthetic and religious theory. But the supposed neutrality of the scientific view masks a host of moral assumptions. How does an ethically transparent science arrive at concepts of a 'hostile' universe or a 'selfish' gene? How do botanists, zoologists, cosmologists and geologists respond to the beauty of the universe they study, reliant as it is upon catastrophe, savagery, power and extinction? Then there are various ways in which science seeks to alter and improve nature. What do prosthetics and gene technology, cyborgs and dairy cows say about our appreciation of nature itself? Surely science, in common with philosophy, magic and religion, can aid our understanding of evil in nature - whether as natural catasrophe, disease, predatory cruelty or mere cosmic indifference? Focusing on the ethical evaluation of nature itself, Is Nature Ever Evil? re-ignites crucial questions of hope, responsibility, and possibility in nature. |
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Contents
List of figures | 1 |
Response to Mary Midgleys Criticizing the cosmos | 27 |
The moral relevance of naturalness | 41 |
a hermeneutic approach 45 | 45 |
Part II | 65 |
comments on Rolston 48 | 87 |
a commentary | 101 |
what future in an open universe? | 120 |
29 | 202 |
a theological evaluation | 203 |
22 | 223 |
natural law in a technological lifeworld | 225 |
Exploring technonature with cyborgs | 236 |
Part IV | 245 |
a response to Ward | 265 |
a watertight case? | 274 |
Tragedy versus hope? A theological response | 132 |
Part III | 147 |
9 | 159 |
Victims of nature cry out | 170 |
27 | 187 |
a theological palette | 189 |
Ought in a world that just is | 284 |
What values guide our oughts? | 310 |
Evolutionary views on the biological basis of religion | 321 |
On pattern recognition evolution epistemology | 330 |
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Common terms and phrases
according animals anthropic principle argue arguments aspects behaviour biological Boorse causal Christian co-creator concept of nature contemporary context correlation cosmos creation creative Creator culture cyborg Darwin discussion disease divine doctrine Earth Eleven-city tour Elfstedentocht environment environmental epistemic ethical evaluation evolution evolutionary example existence explanation expression fact function genes genetic God's Hefner hermeneutics hope human ical idea interpretation intrinsic knowledge Leibniz life-world Lisbon earthquake live meaning metaphors models moral natural evil natural law natural selection natural theology Nature Ever Evil normative objects organism pattern Paul Tillich perfection person perspective philosophical physical possible primatology principle question rational reality reason reference relation religion religious role Rolston scientific scientific models scientists seems selfish genes sense simply social species story suffering sunspots survival teleological theodicy theory things Tillich tion tradition tragedy twins understanding University Press Voltaire Vrije Universiteit